Coffee 3:20 Tue Aug 23
Apollo 11
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I've never tired of watching coverage of the Apollo 11 mission. It continues to instill excitement and wonder.
I was just a nipper at the time, but old enough to know what was going on and share in the excitement that seemed to engulf the world. Suddenly, everything was possible and everywhere was within reach. There was optimism, even if there was also a profoundly dumb war being fought in Vietnam, and freedom despite the deep freeze of the Cold War.
The sound of the countdown, the billowing kerosene and liquid oxygen flames amid an almighty boom; the rocket staying still as if defying all attempts to get it to fly, the flames and great plumes of steam being sucked into the base of the launch pad. Then the rocket crawling slowly before climbing, turning and accelerating towards space. A couple of minutes later the earth's curvature is seen and four or five days later it lands on the moon. The whole thing still has the power to amaze more than 50 years on.
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
What are your memories and thoughts of that time?
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Replies - In Chronological Order ( Show Newest Messages First)
RBshorty
3:28 Tue Aug 23
Re: Apollo 11
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Didn't Stanley Kubrick film it at a USAF base.?
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Mike Oxsaw
3:29 Tue Aug 23
Re: Apollo 11
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I have one - and only one - disappointment from my childhood that remains with me to this day: my parents wouldn't let me stay up to watch the event live as they were more concerned with my schooling. Turned out that I was the only one in my year - let alone class - that didn't see it as it happened.
I, too, still watch anything on this with awe - even more so as stories on how close to a failure it could have been have been released over the years.
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Swiss.
3:30 Tue Aug 23
Re: Apollo 11
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I wasn’t born then but my earliest memories when shown was ….FAKE !
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El Scorchio
3:35 Tue Aug 23
Re: Apollo 11
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Coffee 3:20
I'm sure you must have, but if not, the film Apollo 11 released a couple of years ago is absolutely amazing.
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cholo
3:48 Tue Aug 23
Re: Apollo 11
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Missed it due to the inconvenience of having not been born. The next big one will be Mars, but if we ever get there I'll probably be dead by then.
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El Scorchio
3:52 Tue Aug 23
Re: Apollo 11
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Well it's likely we at least see a return to the moon in this decade, and an eye on Mars in the next 20 years, so fingers crossed for that. I'd love to be alive for that too.
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ted fenton
3:54 Tue Aug 23
Re: Apollo 11
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Amazing time I remember looking out my bedroom window looking at the Moon thinking how amazing men are actually on the surface !! I was 18 and will never forget it.
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Bungo
4:10 Tue Aug 23
Re: Apollo 11
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cholo 3:48 Tue Aug 23
I understand that getting to Mars is not that difficult. It's being able to get people back is the real head-scratcher.
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El Scorchio
4:16 Tue Aug 23
Re: Apollo 11
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Fuel, supplies and enough space for the crew to live comfortably.
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Mike Oxsaw
4:21 Tue Aug 23
Re: Apollo 11
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I've always felt that once the ISS has outlived it's scientific life, it should be pushed into geosynchronous orbit (or even better, one of the La Grange points to act as a way-station on the trips to & from Mars.
Doing so would negate the need to take an "earth re-entryable" ship all the way there and back - they could simply change ships at the ISS in the same way intrepid earth-bound travellers change planes at Dubai International Airport*.
* - don't strain your brain thinking about this if you've only worked in Europe.
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Coffee
4:37 Tue Aug 23
Re: Apollo 11
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El Scorchio 3:35 Tue Aug 23
No, I haven't even heard of it! Is it a documentary or a proper film?
Ted
I also looked up and tried to imagine people walking on the moon. I could never see them though...
Mike Oxsaw
The ISS is only a couple of hundred miles above earth, so not sure that would work...
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Far Cough
4:44 Tue Aug 23
Re: Apollo 11
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Yeah fascinating subject I have always been interested in it especially the Saturn V with it's 5 F-1 engines producing 7,500.000 Ibs of thrust
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Mike Oxsaw
4:52 Tue Aug 23
Re: Apollo 11
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Coffee 4:37 Tue Aug 23
Understood, but they could fold in the solar panels, break it down to it's separate parts and simply nudge the ones they want "out there".
They've decades in which to do this and re-assemble them - the James Webb telescope only took a few months to get working at L2, so it's not as impossible or implausible as it seems.
The only problem I see with it is the ISS units themselves reaching their end-of-life, but even that is not a real issue given the number of units available - just need to be able to dock one space capsule, enter the former ISS, shit, shower & shave, then transfer to the waiting capsule to complete the journey, whichever direction you're going.
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El Scorchio
4:54 Tue Aug 23
Re: Apollo 11
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Coffee 4:37
it's a feature length documentary. Remastered footage and new sound recordings. Bloody brilliant. Here's a link to the trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Co8Z8BQgWc
I think it's on a couple of streaming services, blu ray and Sky have got it as well. Really worth a watch.
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Mike Oxsaw
5:00 Tue Aug 23
Re: Apollo 11
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If this is the film from 2019 directed by Olaf Held, then it's also on The Pirate Bay (for those mature enough to remember what that is).
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the coming of gary
5:03 Tue Aug 23
Re: Apollo 11
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what fascinates me is the average man in the street couldn't name the third man on the moon - such a big achievement too
also i like the argument about who was the last man on the moon -- number 12 stepped on last, but i think number 11 was last to step off
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Westside
5:06 Tue Aug 23
Re: Apollo 11
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Absorbed by it as a kid. Had a fairly strict bedtime, but was virtually told to stay up and watch it by my dad "this is history being made."
Shame in the 50+ years since we have gone no further (manned missions), due to the limitations of chemical rockets.
I'd send the space research budget, on faster than light travel research. Before anybody says, that's impossible, read up on the Alcubierre Drive, which makes faster than light travel, theoretically possible.
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zebthecat
5:07 Tue Aug 23
Re: Apollo 11
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I was really lucky as little kid as my Dad was on a sabbatical in Miami during that time sowe were close to the action.
Didn't see the lift off as we were on holiday in Fort Lauderdale (bad timing) but did see Apollo 11 completed in the massive construction building a couple of days before it was due to be loaded onto the transporter - every 4 your old boy's dream.
They had deconstructed rockets and a prototype Lunar Module at Cape Kennedy as well which was very cool.
Saw the take off, landing and splashdown on a tiny grainy old Black and White telly.
Also why I am a Dolphins fan. Went to see them years before my first West Ham match.
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Far Cough
5:08 Tue Aug 23
Re: Apollo 11
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I see Oxsnore has got the answer that took Werner Von Braun and thousands of his scientists, the question of how to get to the moon economically in terms of fuel and weight
He really should be the director of space exploration at NASA
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Haz
5:12 Tue Aug 23
Re: Apollo 11
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the coming of gary 5:03 Tue Aug 23
Re: Apollo 11
what fascinates me is the average man in the street couldn't name the third man on the moon - such a big achievement too
*Coughs* - Charles 'Pete' Conrad
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